==

In the realm of Xia, there stand tall three great countries across three major continents.

The first of these lands is known as Hono.

A fierce, chaotic land known for its towering ranges of rumbling volcanoes, its frequent earthquakes, and its crystal clear, soothing hot springs and geysers said to be able to cure any illness.

The flame winged, feathered Karasi occupied this land, their hearts filled with fire and drive to match the world around them.

The second of these lands was known as Shui.

A calmer continent half-submerged in water and marked by islands that floated atop water and air alike, great waterfalls in the sky crashing down upon gentle grasses and marshy forests.

Here, the scale crowned Yinlong lived, swimming through their vast waters with elegance and poise.

The third continent was far plainer than the others. A vast stretch of earth, towering mountain ranges, and savannah. These mountains of this land were said to house old spirits, having wills of their own, moving and colliding with each other.

Upon this rocky land lived the Hwara, a stripe-furred people with tough and large bodies.

Among all the realms of the Common Body, there was one nigh indisputable fact.

If one wanted to learn Martial Arts, they took a pilgrimage to Xia, for each of its three peoples had cultivated and developed various fighting styles honed to perfection over millennia, far before even the descent of the New Gods.

Countless schools of martial arts thrived in Xia, and with the right dedication and effort, one was bound invariably to find a school that suited them. If a warrior's mana affinity was painted in raging Chaos, many Karasi schools could allow them hone and channel their explosive power to great benefit.

If a warrior's mana affinity was that of Flow, then the Yinlong were masters of utilizing their bodies to flow with all the grace and efficiency of the ebbing and flowing tides that guided them.

If a warrior's mana affinity was that of the Root, bound to either strict offense or defense, then the Hwara knew best the ways to manipulate such straightforward mana affinities with their simple but brutal training.

There even were expert schools of healing for the rare few that possessed the Unity affinity.

Countless martial geniuses have risen from Xia, many of them becoming high profile Adventurers, though just as many chose to pursue paths of personal strength, only ever teaching Adventurers and never truly going into that way of life.

For that was what martial arts were to them - a way of life. A way of being. Both a tool to utilize and a philosophy to behold themselves to.

Yet martial arts has always been a way tied inextricably with notions of strength, and is it not in common nature to desire to see who is strongest?

Thus, routine tournaments were held across Xia, countless schools from each of the three continents pitting their best and finest to see who truly stood at the top. The best schools earned great praise from their respective rulers, earning both coin and political support.

Among these tournaments, the greatest was the Tournament of Three Paths where each continent sent their finest representatives.

Adventurers and outsiders were also allowed here provided they fought only with their fists in the unarmed category or dedicated weapon in the armed category, for this tournament was to prove who was the mightiest with their martial ways.

With the advent of the New Gods, those that were recognized in the Tournament of Three Paths were also often offered the chance for Ascension, becoming lesser divinities joining the halls of Aetheria as guardians of all the realms.

Every ten years, the Tournament of Three Paths was held.

In 1550, the Tournament of Three Paths was halted for the first time in seven centuries due to the Red Night and the attack of Kinthas, the Mad King, and the Daemons and Vampyrs across the realms.

Now, in the year of 1560, the Tournament of Three Paths was to be held once more, and great excitement buzzed around it, not only because of the tournament's return, but because all three continents, no, all realms of the Common Body wished to see who would win and potentially overcome the legacy of the previous winner.

The winner of 1540. And 1530. And 1520. And 1510.

For the winner of each of those four decades was just one Yinlong.

Li Kui of Shui, the former head of the now abolished school of unarmed martial arts known as the Guiding Current.

There was not a single martial artist alive throughout every single realm that did not know of the legend of Li Kui.

Li Kui the Gentle Wave, so called for he ensured that with his throws, none ever died, for he did not believe in taking life.

The Tournament of Three Paths, and indeed, most of the tournaments below it did not rule against killing one's opponent, but Li Kui alone possessed an undefeated record of over 1000 fights with no losses and not a single opponent killed.

Seriously injured, yes, but killed? Never.

Not a single martial artist in the one thousand five hundred years of recorded history since the arrival of the New Gods and the Convergence, when all realms were linked, had ever replicated Li Kui's record.

Especially not in the way that he did.

The only time Li Kui ever struggled was in his last tournament of 1540, when he faced against the Hwaran prodigy Ryu-Ja whose single blows could shatter entire mountains.

But come to the land of Xia, especially to the water wreathed land of Shui, and ask of Li Kui.

You will be asked to keep your voice down. To not speak of such a name so openly. If you are a foreigner from another realm, then perhaps the Imperial Peacekeepers will forgive you for your ignorance and only berate you.

For there is not a single Yinlong that has taken the lives of so many of his own as Li Kui.

None know why it happened. How it happened. Merely that it did.

Li Kui the Gentle Wave entering the grounds of school after school and throwing every single fighter that came his way. And this time, his throws were not held back. They shattered spines. They broke necks. They turned bodies into puddles of unrecognizable blood and flesh.

His blows collapsed school buildings until one hundred schools had fallen under his limbs.

His rampage did not end there. He killed every single Imperial Peacekeeper that came his way and set his sights upon the Imperial Palace where the Azure Emperor ruled.

The Adventurer's League branded him as a Monster, excommunicating him from the Common Body, and so came waves upon waves of Adventurers to halt him as he made his way directly to the Imperial Palace.

First, five-star adventurers that died like flies.

Six-star adventurers that died like cockroaches.

Seven-star adventurers that died like cattle.

Finally, it was Xie Zhen, nine-star representative of Xia for the Adventurer's League High Council and one of the undisputed strongest across all of the realms, his swordplay reaching the level of the major gods themselves, that halted Li Kui's advance.

None knows what happened exactly to Li Kui, for Xie Zhen refuses to give his account of the legendary battle, but it is presumed the mad warrior was felled.

But the carnage had been done.

At the end of Li Kui's five-day rampage, he had reached up to the gates of the Imperial Palace. His warpath had laid waste to one hundred and eight schools of martial arts and the death of over a thousand warriors.

And that is how Li Kui the Gentle Wave became known now to be Li Kui the Slaughtering Storm.

-An excerpt from the Compiled Histories of Martial Arts in Xia by Lim Shin-Ha